by Megan Pierce

Created on: May 13, 2008

There has never been a more pivotal time in American History than that of the Vietnam War. While Vietnam had witnessed a time of brutal massacres and violent skirmishes in its rural jungle towns, America was struggling with the radical anti-war movement in its city streets and universities. In Vietnam, bloodshed was seen through instances like the My Lai massacre or the Hue conflict. But in the United States, dissent was established by the infiltrations of the "New Left" group and through national anti-war rallies and "teach-ins". During the early years of the war, teach-ins and protests were less brutal, but riots that soon sparked violence resulted when there was a blatant clash between police and uncompromising protesters.

One of the many ways that the radical youth demonstrated their fury was through rallies held on university campuses. The most well known of these campus skirmishes was the slaying of four students at Kent State University in 1970. When President Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia, Kent State students were outraged by the resulting escalation of the war, and announced that protests will be held the following Monday. On Saturday, May 2nd, radical students set ablaze the campus ROTC building. In response, Governor James Rhodes sent in the Ohio National Guard to occupy the campus. There is little tension between the Guard and the students, and the guardsmen stay the rest of the weekend in anticipation for Monday's protest.

On Monday, May 4th, Students gathered on the university commons in front of the Taylor Hall Dormitories. Not knowing that classes had just let out, General Robert Canterbury mistakenly assumes that all of the students on the commons are there to protest. Guardsmen are ordered to spray tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the soldiers, armed with loaded M-1 rifles, gather the crowd towards Blanket Hill. The guardsmen then appear on the peak of the hill, and moments before reaching the safety of a campus building, they simultaneous turn around and fire erratically into the crowd, striking protesters and by-standers that are innocently on their way to classes. Sixty-one shots are fired into the throng of students, and over a time span of 13 seconds, four are dead and nine are wounded. Campuses all over the country are shut down in protest, as the massacre triggered a nation-wide student strike. A new kind of civil war was brewing in the hearts of America's young people, and college students were urged to disband their radical

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